The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (Il Mulino)

A stupid creature will harass you for no reason, for no advantage, without any plan or scheme and at the most improbable times and places. You have no rational way of telling if and when and how and why the stupid creature attacks. When confronted with a stupid individual you are completely at his mercy.

This is what both Dickens and Schiller had in mind when the former stated that «with stupidity and sound digestion man may front much» and the latter wrote that «against stupidity the very Gods fight in vain».

when confronted with stupid individuals often intelligent men as well as bandits make the mistake of indulging in feelings of self-complacency and contemptuousness instead of immediately secreting adequate quantities of adrenalin and building up defences.

Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behaviour.

The Third Basic Law assumes, although it does not state it explicitly, that human beings fall into four basic categories: the helpless, the intelligent, the bandit and the stupid.

reasonable people have difficulty in conceiving and understanding unreasonable behaviour.

«A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses».

Our daily life is mostly made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain w